Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

This proposal describes a systems development project that is a component of the larger research theme of Virtual Augmentation and Simulation for Surgery and Therapy (the VASST Lab) within the Robarts Research Institute at Western University. Virtual and augmented reality systems are becoming commonplace through their popularity in the gaming industry. However, these systems open up the possibility of new and more effective means of analyzing multi-dimensional dynamic data in a manner not previously possible. One such area is the provision of realistic simulation environments for training of physicians for complex procedures. Our hypothesis is that Virtual Reality head-mounted displays, equipped with tracking and gesture-recognition abilities, and employed in conjunction with simple physical tissue-equivalent objects to which virtual patient or organ images are registered, will provide realistic training scenarios for procedures that involve needle insertion, tissue resection, ablation probe navigation as well as percutaneous instrument and catheter manipulation. These tissue-mimicking objects need not bear any physical resemblance to the real objects their material properties simply need to be sufficiently close to actual tissue that the force feedback during interaction is similar to that experienced during an actual procedure. Successful completion of this project will open the door to the development of inexpensive simulation system that employ commodity hardware such as smart phones and tablets, without the need for complex computational models driving the haptic feedback. Objectives of this project include: Evaluation of appropriate soft-tissue mimics specific to target organs; Development of motion stage to simulate organ motions including cardiac and respiratory motions. Dynamic modelling of organs. Registration of Virtual Display with Target “Organs” Establishment validity of simulator modules. Our hypothesis is that Virtual Reality head-mounted displays, equipped with tracking and gesture-recognition abilities, and employed in conjunction with simple physical tissue-equivalent objects to which virtual patient or organ images are registered, will provide realistic training scenarios for procedures that involve needle insertion, tissue resection, ablation probe navigation as well as percutaneous instrument and catheter manipulation. These tissue-mimicking objects need not resemble the real objects their material properties simply need to be sufficiently close to actual tissue that the force feedback during interaction is similar to that experienced during an actual procedure.